ECB's Nowotny says Cyprus is a special case: APA

Cyprus is a special case and other countries should not fear contagion from the terms of its bailout that include levying a one-off tax on bank deposits, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny told Austria's ORF radio on Monday.

"For other countries, there is absolutely no reason to fear contagion," said Nowotny, noting that Cyprus's banking system accounted for an above-average proportion of national output, and that the island nation had a particularly high share of foreign depositors.

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"In this sense, there is nothing to fear," he said, adding alternatives to Cyprus's bailout package would have been worse. ($1 = 0.7654 euros)